


russell's first crush (if his parents don't ruin it first)

by judypoovey



Category: Deadpool (Movieverse), Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)
Genre: AU - no infinity war? or post infinity war? hard to Say, Gen, M/M, Very Innocent Teenage Romance Ahead
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-17
Updated: 2018-07-17
Packaged: 2019-06-12 03:16:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,352
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15330534
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/judypoovey/pseuds/judypoovey
Summary: Russell Collins meets Spider-Man on a mysterious, candy-related outing to Queens. Then he meets Peter Parker. He does not have a crush. He promises.





	russell's first crush (if his parents don't ruin it first)

**Author's Note:**

> I just.......want cute age appropriate ships for these kids.

Going on errands with Wade in Queens was sort of odd. Russell didn’t care, though, because it got him away from Xavier’s and into the city for a little bit. It just seemed like somewhere between upstate and Queens, they would have passed a more convenient place to run errands.

It was what it was. He’d learned not to question it too much.

He didn’t get to go with Wade on heroic missions, which was a Vanessa Rule. No one could defy a Vanessa Rule, not even Nate. So it wasn’t a mission. It was something, though.

Something that left Russell standing outside of a bodega while Wade argued with someone inside about something or another. He wasn’t listening, he was texting his classmate Tamara about math homework.

A real school had been an adjustment for Russell. He wasn’t used to a place where he wasn’t punished for every minor mistake and infraction. The first time he’d accidentally set his notebook ablaze, he’d almost cried until Colossus told him it was fine.

It felt better, though. He was still scared, sometimes, and mad a lot of fucking times, but getting away from that piece of shit orphanage had been the best thing that had ever happened to him.

“Stop!” someone yelled, and he saw a guy run into view, clutching a clearly stolen purse. He stopped at the corner where Russell stood, looking around for his next move, afraid of what was behind him.

Thinking quickly, Russell stomped on a nearby trashcan lid, flipping it up into his hand and bashing the dude in the freaking throat with it. It was a cool move, he wished Wade had seen it.

“That was awesome!” someone shouted, but it wasn’t his adopted dad, it was…

It was fucking _Spider-Man._

He webbed the guys arms, taking the purse back.

“Uh, thanks,” Russell said.

“He was really fast,” Spider-Man said, sounding winded. He sounded young, like. Russell’s age young.

Wishful thinking, he guessed. If Spider-Man was allowed to be a hero at 15, why not Russell? That would trump a Vanessa Rule, right?

“High-five!”

They high fived, Russell’s hand smoldering slightly, a side-effect of being more than a little flustered by the attention.

“Are you doing that?”

“Yeah, uh, sorry…”

“No, it’s cool! Are you a mutant? Like an X-Man?”

“Trainee!” Wade called from inside, finally coming out with a comically large box of foreign looking candy bars. “Hello Spider-Man.”

“Hi…guy…”

“Don’t worry about it. We have to go, son,” he said importantly. “You probably won’t see us again,” he said, addressing Spider-Man. “We’re from a much…darker place. More R-Rated.”

“Where?” Spider-Man asked, not cottoning on to Wade’s unusual manner of interacting with the world at all.

“Upstate,” Russell cut in, ushering Wade away. “Do play Fortnite? You should add – oh, wait, secret identity. Damn. See you around, Spider-Man!”

Spider-Man disappeared to return the stolen purse without another word.

“You’re supposed to be _my_ biggest fan,” Wade jokingly whined, until he noticed that Russell was still nervously smoldering. “Do you have a crush on Spider-Man?”

“That’s the stupidest fuckin’ thing you’ve ever said.”

“Hey, watch your goddamn language.”

\--

Of course, Wade told everyone. It was in the group chat in the hour.

“It’s all right,” Domino told Russell as he groaned into his pillow. “Ignore Wade, he’ll get on some other tangent in like, two days.”

“I know,” he grumbled, allowing Neena to push his hair out of his face when I sat up. “It’s just stupid. I totally don’t have a crush on him!”

“I believe you,” she lied.

\--

“I was gonna go into the city, wanna come?” Vanessa asked, two months after the Spider-Man incident. It had mostly been forgotten, except the occasionally Emoji Of Implication from Wade. The others weren’t as gleeful at the idea of embarrassing a fifteen-year-old about crushing on a superhero. That was normal kid stuff. Wade meant it with love.

He agreed to go, hunting down his favorite jacket (Domino had picked it for him. More accurately, she’d grabbed it off the rack without a thought and said “I think this will look good on you!” and it turned out it looked great on him) and a clean-ish pair of jeans.

“Where’re we going?”

“An art gallery in Queens,” she said as they struggled to load one of her sculptures into the back of her little hatchback.

He tried not to hope that they’d see their favorite insect-themed superhero there.

(“Spiders are arachnids,” Wade said. “What kind of education are we paying for? Plus, Ness’s favorite insect-themed superhero is Wasp.”)

He wandered around the art gallery, looking at nonsensical sculptures and offensively bright paintings as Vanessa haggled with the director over what her welded, twisted, but oddly beautiful piece of metalwork was worth. (Russell had found a lot of emotional release out of helping Ness with her welding. It was their family bonding activity.)

But, as teenage boys do, he got a little bored, and wandered outside. He went to the corner store to get a pack of gum, and found an empty table at the café next to the gallery to sit at and play on his phone. A kid about his age walked by and stopped short.

“Hey!” he said, but then something flashed over his face that Russell couldn’t figure out.

He walked in an awkward circle, then leaned on the rail separating them.

“Sorry, I mistook you for someone I met once but, since I’m already here, hey!” he said. He smiled.

Russell inherently didn’t trust new people, even new people his age. There was no reason this random kid from New York meant him any harm, but his natural reflex was to glare slightly. “Hey.”

It didn’t seem to bother the kid, who sat down on the rail. “I’m Peter. Parker. Peter Parker.”

“Russell,” he said, not supplying a last name.

“Are you by yourself? Do you live around here?”

“I’m from Upstate,” he said, which didn’t seem to surprise Parker. “By way of New Zealand, I mean.”

“I live around the block. You come into the city a lot?”

“No, my mom is selling one of her sculptures to that gallery,” he said, pointing over his shoulder. He was more and more at ease the longer the conversation went on. He tried not to mess with his hair, quietly glad he’d picked his best jacket.

Peter nodded. “That’s cool. My aunt fancies herself an artist too. She’s who I live with. My parents are…”

“Dead?”

“Yeah.”

“Mine too. I’m adopted.”

“Seems like a weirdly common thing. Harry Potter, Luke Skywalker, every superhero…” he joked, and Russell laughed. He seemed like a nice kid, maybe a little dorky, clearly not talking to Russell to prank him or be mean.

He didn’t know exactly why they were talking, but it was nice that they were.

He dropped his phone to try and hide the stream of smoke coming off his hands.

“Sorry, these damn Totorolla’s catching on fire all the time,” he mumbled.

Peter laughed. “Well, maybe I could get your number before it ignites so we can hang out if you’re in town again? Me and my buddy Ned could show you around or we could play video games,” he said.

Russell nodded, trying to be cool under pressure. He thought Vanessa might be watching him from the window. “Yeah, uh, let me put my number in yours,” he said, taking the offered phone – which was somewhat nicer than Peter’s clothing would have indicated at a glance – and punching in his number.

A quick “this is peter!” text later and numbers were exchanged. Peter jumped off the railing to continue his journey home.

He stopped a few steps away and turned around. “Do you play Fortnite? You should add me!” he said.

Russell contemplated that for a moment, realizing dawning on his face.

“Later, Russell!”

“Son of a bitch!” he shouted after a moment alone, startling a stray cat.

“Watch your goddamn language!” Vanessa scolded jokingly, finally divested of her art. “Who was that?”

“Spider-Man.”

“Are you kidding?”

Spider-Man had his number!


End file.
